Not everybody is buying into the improved environment of Beijing.

Marathon world record-holder Haile Gebrselassie will not be competing at the Beijing Olympics because China’s air pollution could damage his health.

As National Post scribe Peter Foster points out, “Maurice Strong, is apparently confined, for health reasons, to his home in Beijing.  Since Beijing is one of the smoggiest cities on earth, and Mr. Strong is a severe asthmatic, this is a somewhat strange hidey hole for Chairman Mo.  Presumably it is the bracing air of Communist rule in which his lungs rejoice rather than the ambient pollution.  Beijing is also probably attractive as being a long way from any echoes of that unfortunate UN oil-for-food fandango in Iraq, in which Mr. Strong so inexplicably found himself embroiled.  Still, we wish Mr. Strong a full recovery.  The world would be a much less interesting—if considerably safer—place without him.”

Meanwhile, when you happen to be in the carbon footprint game, some environmentally improved countries are far more equal than others.  Source

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